Increase of commerce goal of new Morgantown group

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A new collaboration in Morgantown is looking for ways to increase commerce in the city’s downtown and waterfront areas.

Danielle Trumble

Deputy Mayor Danielle Trumble served as chair at a recent forum that also included representatives of Main Street Morgantown and other community leaders.

Making it easy to understand the steps needed to start a business and what parcels are available for sale or lease is one of the ideas that was produced during the meetings.

“Explaining how the permitting goes, how the licensing goes and the steps needed to toward that,” Trumble said. “We’re even looking at maybe putting together some property lists to show what properties are available.”

Also, making it easier for residents to navigate downtown and understand what is available.

“We talked with the city planning director about putting up some “way finding” signage to help people navigate through downtown toward short term parking, long term parking,” Trumble said. “Things like that can immediately start happening.”

Parking is always an issue in downtown Morgantown. Trumble wants to work with other departments to plan special events and possibly use special parking rates to encourage people to make the trip downtown.

“We intend to open a line of communication with the Morgantown Parking Authority to see ways we can best collaborate with them,” Trumble said. “To offer some flexible parking, even if that’s just during Main Street events or special days.”

Post-pandemic, the downtown is adding businesses where some have closed and more are opening.

“There are a lot of great things happening downtown right now, and I think people don’t recognize it,” Trumble said. “We have new businesses going in all the time- I was at two ribbon cutting ceremonies Friday alone.”

Officials have been working to improve the downtown climate for business. Many business owners and residents have cited panhandling, drug use and incidents involving aggressive homeless people as reasons not to come downtown. Additionally, reports of crime have played a role- there two stabbings reported in the month of September.

“Downtown Morgantown has a fair share of issues, no one is going to deny that,” Trumble said. “I committed to working on that while campaigning for council and this is a big focus of mine and I’ve made it a priority while on council.”

According to Trumble, the group will plan meetings for the future as needed.





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